Sapphire is pretty much the lead partner when it comes to AMD graphics cards. With that it was to no surprise that for this launch the first HD7790 I recieved was from Sapphire. This card is meant to fit into the gap between the 7700 series and the 7800 series much like the new model 7870 based off of the Tahiti LE GPU filled in the space between the 7800 and 7900 series. Now lets see exactly what this card has to offer for the mainstream audience.

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Introduction – Sapphire HD 7790

Sapphire being the go to partner for AMD was the first to jump onboard with us on the HD7790 card, and when they first told me about it I was kind of puzzled but after some looking around it made some sense. AMD left a pretty sizeable gap in its mainstream performance segment between the top of the 7700 series 7770 at slightly under 100 dollars between 90-100 USD and the 7850 at around 170-180USD. This si where the HD7790 slips in at around $149.00 MSRP while the model i have here which is factory overclocked at a MSRP of $159.00.

The thing we have to remember is that while being an enthusiasts I would assume that the real money makers are the high end like the 7950/7970 cards, but when you step back and look at the raw numbers there are far more of the midrange and mainstream cards sold which means these cards are the manufacturers bread and butter. That being said I could see why AMD woudl want to make sure that gap between the 7700 and 7800 series is filled well to allow for a broad selection no matter the budget.

Here you can see that the new Bonaire GPU offers some serious muscle from the over 2 billion transistors and much higher texture units available. The much higher speed 6Gbps memory data rate definitely will help blast data along as well which all adds up to a very strong card for those gamers on a budget.

It is worth nothing that the HD7790 does fall into the AMD Newer Settle Campaign which means buyers are elligible to be bundled witha copy of Bioshock Infinite from participating retailers, so that could be a pretty nice added bonus for anyoen looking at picking up the newest Bioshock offering.

Key Features

New “Bonaire” GPU

The new HD 7790 is powered by a 28nm GCN architecture GPU similar to all of the other 7000 series GPUs. Unlike other 7700 series card which were Cape Verde models. This once again is very similar to the recent 7870 card where it did nto use Pitcairn GPU like other 7800’s and opted for a Tahiti LE model.

Sapphire FleX Technology

TheHD7790 Supports Sapphire FleX technology which allows triple display connectivity without the need for displayport, and a 4th using the Displayport. This allows for excellenrt compatibility with triple diaply setups across the wides range of available displays.

AMD PowerTune with Boost

The HD7790 supports full dynamic clocking of the GPU speed according to limits of thermal and power envelopes depeding on teh loading of the card. This could allow for a much higher clock for even better gaming performance .

Sapphire Dual-X Cooler

Sapphire Equipped the OC model with the Sual-X cooler design which utilizes a large dual heatpipe fin array with a twin set of high performance cooling fans to ensure that the card runs even cooler than it looks. This is all shrouded with the customary Sapphire rugged designed plastic shroud which adds a taste of style to the card while also directing airflow through the cooling array.

PCI Express Gen 3 Capable

Like all 7 series AMD GPU’s the HD7790 fully supports PCIe 3.0 for higher speed throughput and better overall bandwidth.